JERICHO, AR  He was shot by an officer. Now arrest warrants have been issued for the Former Fire Chief in Jericho, Arkansas. Meanwhile, the officer who shot him is patrolling the streets. Investigators say Don Payne was shot inside Jericho City Hall after he confronted a judge over a parking ticket.

MyEywitnessNews.com caught up with Don Payne more than a week after the warrants were issued. He was on his front porch. Im sitting right here just waiting. Im not a fugitive. Im a person that works for the government just like them. I am an honest man. Payne says the actions of the Jericho Police Department are anything but. These officers need to be checked out by the FBI. When people do like they do, they dont want to come out and talk. They're hiding stuff so, you can come and visit me any time of the week.

MyEywitnessNews.com received a lukewarm welcome by Jerichos mayor. Im doing my mayors duty, what Im supposed to do. My bookwork and everything lined up because weve been behind. Neither the mayor, nor officers would say when they plan to make the arrest. Both Payne and his lawyer call the charges senseless.

The Town of Jericho is currently without a fire department. Just days after being released from the hospital, Don Payne was fired as fire chief. His volunteer crew resigned after hearing about Paynes termination.

JERICHO, AR - The tiny town of Jericho, Arkansas, is making big news. The fire chief was recently shot in the back by a police officer while in court disputing a traffic ticket. Don Payne spent three weeks recovering at The Med and was just fired from his job as fire chief.

The entire volunteer department of nearly 20 firefighters quit as a sign of their support for Payne. The mayor says people who live in the town are safe, despite not having a fire department.

“They know were working on that, and were going to get it under we already got it under control, Adams said. We don’t have to be worried about the citizens getting fire protection, because we can handle that.”

We asked the Mayor just how they planned on handling that.

Well, I can’t. Were working it out, were working on it now, Adams said. When I terminated him, we got to working on it, and we’ve been working on it ever since then.”

The Marion Fire Department is the closest sizable department to Jericho and often responds to calls in the area. The chief there says no one from Jericho has contacted him.

Mayor Adams says she’s already told everyone in Jericho they have nothing to worry about in terms of the fire department.

“The concerned citizen, Adams said. They already knew.”

Prosecutors say they plan to charge former Fire Chief Don Payne with battery on a police officer. The officer who shot him faces no charges.

On August 27, 2009, one of Jericho’s seven police officers shot the town Fire Chief, Don Payne, in the hip after he appeared in court a second time on the same day to dispute two different traffic tickets.

In the wake of the shooting, Judge Tonya Alexander dismissed all tickets issued by the Jericho Police Department, including some given outside of their jurisdiction. Alexander then resigned from her position.

Police Chief Willie Frazier disbanded the force “until things calm down,” turning patrols over the town back to the Sheriff’s Department, which had patrolled the town until the 1990s.

Residents, including the Fire Chief, had complained that the town’s police force had issued excessive numbers of traffic citations and that they could not explain what had happened to the revenue generated from the fines collected.

The chief investigator for the Sheriff’s department said “You can’t even get them to answer a call, because normally they’re writing tickets... They’re not providing a service to the citizens.”

With 174 residents, the city can keep seven police officers on its rolls but missed payments on police and fire department vehicles and saw its last business close its doors a few weeks ago.

You cant even buy a loaf of bread, but weve got seven police officers, said former resident Larry Harris, who left town because he said the police harassment became unbearable.

Sheriffs deputies patrolled Jericho until the 1990s, when the city received grant money to start its own police force, Martin said.

Police often camped out in the departments two cruisers along the highway that runs through town, waiting for drivers who failed to slow down when they reached the 45 mph zone ringing Jericho. Residents say the ticketing got out of hand.

When I first moved out here, they wrote me a ticket for going 58 mph in my driveway, 75-year-old retiree Albert Beebe said.

The frequent ticketing apparently led to the vandalization of the cruisers, and the department took to parking the cars overnight at the sheriffs department eight miles away.

It was anger over traffic tickets that brought Payne to city hall last week, said his lawyer, Randy Fishman. After Payne failed to get a traffic ticket dismissed on Aug. 27, police gave Payne or his son another ticket that day. Payne, 39, returned to court to vent his anger to Judge Tonya Alexander, Fishman said.

Its unclear exactly what happened next, but Martin said an argument between Payne and the seven police officers who attended the hearing apparently escalated to a scuffle, ending when an officer shot Payne from behind.

Doctors in Memphis, Tenn., removed a .40-caliber bullet from Paynes hip bone, Martin said. Another officer suffered a grazing wound to his finger from the bullet.

Let’s see. The fire chief goes to traffic court to contest a ticket. The judge dismisses the ticket and then resigns. The cops shoot the fire chief in the back at court, and the prosector wants to charge the chief with a crime. Then the chief resigns along with the entire fire department, so the cops go out and write a ticket on an old guy doing 58 MPH in his driveway.

There are places like this all over. In pittsburgh, Route 65 in Kilbuck was famous for its speed traps. They hired retired city of Pittsburgh motorcycle cops to just operate the traps. One mile over and you were busted.

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posted on 09/27/2009 5:04:05 AM PDT
by Yorlik803
( Better to die on your feet than live on your knees.)

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